Contemporary texas magazine may 2017 v1

CONTEMPORARY The Fine Arts Magazine

FREE May, 2017 Issue

Raska Installation vs. Design

SURD SA GROUP SHOW

Tatum King of LowBrow

J. Read H-Town Comic Syndicate

Reviews/ Commentary/ Exhibitions/ News/ Events

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IN THIS ISSUE Gaslyght MODERN James Saldivar

Tatum

The Arts Magazine May 2017

Comical Kitsch and so much more.

PUBLISHER Gabriel Diego Delgado Contributing Writers Gabriel Diego Delgado Tex Kerschen via Houston Press

SURD

All artwork photography courtesy of Gabriel Diego Delgado and notated contributions when appropriate

Is the absurd absent in this group exhibition ?

Prices are for current artwork, and can change at any time

IN EVERY ISSUE

© 2017 Delgado Consulting and Appraising

A Note from the Publisher –P.12

Boerne, Texas 78006

On the Cover—P.13

210-723-1338 Edited by Gabriel Diego Delgado, Melissa Belgara

Contributors— P.13

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Design by: Gabriel Diego Delgado

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The Fine Arts Magazine

FEATURES May 2017 Issue No. 4

James Raska: Conceptual Installation in Southtown.

Jon Read: Comic Book Art (Courtesy of Houston Press & Tex Kerschen).

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Early Morning Field and Bluebonnets, Oil on canvas, 20x24”

pauly tamez art

Through May 2017 at the Cibolo Creek Brewing Co. 448 S. Main, Boerne

May 13—Boerne Art Waddle

Spring Storm Approaching, Oil on canvas, 5x7 “

Hill Country Creek, Oil on canvas, 11x14”

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A Note from the Publisher April Showers brings May flowers. Here we are, May 2017. Fiesta just winded down this past weekend. Oh the festivities in SA. Hundreds of thousands of people, our people, your people, everyone’s people flocked the streets to see all the wonderful culture SA has to offer. Yes, it was stressful at times as you tried to squeeze past stages in the Mercado and pay for $10.00 Bloody Mary beer mixes, but the sights were amazing and fantastic memories are made. Thank you SA for the wonderful spring. Summer ahead!

Contemporary Texas , The Fine Arts Magazine hopes to use its pages as a vehicle to educate, entertain and enlighten our audience on a variety of topics ranging from reviews, news, artist narratives, interviews, criticism and a cohort of other art related stories from within the gallery walls to the major metro centers. I hope you find this informative and hope you continue to follow the artistic happenings around you in your local neighborhoods.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Diego Delgado Publisher delgadoconsultingandappraising@gmail.com

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On the Cover / Contributor

“Texas Drive” “I thought this image was appropriate for the cover of this edition as it was taken on the drive back to the hill country after I was able to visit Southtown for a spell , and hike it back to Boerne. The drive in to the city was over an hour and a bit down I-10, but the drive back after visiting with James Raska, Tatum, Lone Star and others was a comforting end of a good night with friends, acquaintances and the like. The Texas sky always amazes me.

Onward and Upward, as my old friend Joe Cardella used to say.”

Gabriel Diego Delgado is the owner of Delgado Consulting and Appraising and is the former Gallery Director at .R. Mooney Galleries in Boerne, Texas. He has spent almost a decade in Nonprofit Art Management- working as a Curator of Exhibitions at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art and ArtCar Museum, both in Houston; and as Project Manager of Research and Development at the Museo Alameda, a Smithsonian Affiliate, San Antonio.

He has been an Arts Reviewer and critic for over a dozen local, regional and national publications.

His artwork has been shown in Arco 2012 Madrid, Spain; New York, New York, MOCA D.C. as well as numerous galleries and venues throughout the U.S. He is competent to appraise fine art and personal property in affiliation with the code of ethics and USPAP standards for the International Society of Appraisers (ISA).

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Tatum, “Car Ma”, acrylic on canvas, custom wood frame

TATUM King of LowBrow

BY: GABRIEL DIEGO DELGADO

“You wanna go where everybody knows your name.”

-Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

San Antonio’s King of Lowbrow Pop Art, Robert Tatum, delivers with a new body of artwork for his solo exhibition: “Mid-Century Crisis” at his satellite gallery Showdown in the Blue Star Arts Complex. Running from April 2017 through May 2017, this exhibition was marketed as a kind of ‘holding the mirror up to oneself exhibition’ – a self-proclaimed “philosophical and spiritual retrospection.” These new paintings are theoretically a mash-up of Tatum, and can be “combined to translate into a visual self-portrait.”

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Tatum, “Nonconformist”, acrylic on canvas, custom wood frame

I think the execution of Tatum’s masterfully painted, snide and sarcastically toned one-liner puns are funny and artistically attractive.

Of course, in reviewing his artwork though, there should be an obvious throwback reference to the master of this contemporary genre, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth with his ‘Rat Fink’ character. If we are going counter culture Pop-Art, we must tip the drink to the dead homies. You know? Respects…

Point is, we all can flip through the current editions of Juxtapoz Magazine, HI-FRUCTOSE and many others to see these ‘dime a dozen’ graphic artists making some cool shit for us to look at. Clever visual mish-mashes of contemporary designs that are intermingled with generation x, y and z nostalgia.

OH SO CRAFTY!!

“Oh, I remember when I used to play Monopoly, He-Man, My Little Pony, Hungry Hippo, and (insert your own childhood memory cliché”) which gives us some sort of Hipster-esque self-gratification of ‘I should be living in Red Hook or Brooklyn’ warped self-identity, and a “aren’t we clever” bubble thought cloud.

But there must be more. There has to be something past the surface value of this Deviant Art, Surf Rock, California – “Aloha Mr. Hand” mentality.

In all sincerity and respect for his art, let’s address Tatum’s one-liner adroit witticisms for more clarity.

“...Tatum’s masterfully painted, snide and sarcastically toned one-liner puns are funny and artistically attractive.”

“Wu-Tang”, a 36” x 36” Acrylic on Canvas painting, depicts Star Trek character, Spock throwing up the “W” for the Wu-Tang Clan, a hip-hop group from New York. Spock, known for his Vulcan salute or greeting; which is really a gesture described by Leonard Nimoy as a "double-fingered version of Churchill's victory sign" mixes the hip-hop principles with the science fiction Trekkies, while at the same time dishing out a kind of visual nostalgia of recognizable T.V. popular culture.

Clever… combine the hand signals, jump across cultures, execute something we can all chuckle at…

Achieved effort with remarkable success.

“Leap of Faith”, an Acrylic on Canvas with a custom wood frame, is a painting that shows a minimally painted silhouette of a presumed, little boy on his lowrider bike having just jumped off his bike ramp, flying through the air with a cape and Evil Knievel helmet on. Yes, we all wanted to do that; live

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Tatum, “Wu-Tang”, acrylic on canvas

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vicariously through our heroes and anti-heroes. Experience their thrills and spills within our own abilities and means, however limited they are and pretend to be someone we are not.

I get it, it’s funny at first and second glance like those Sky Mall Magazines on airplanes, but it gets old quickly.

Here is where we must deviate from the negative thinking for this ‘leader of the pack’. Tatum, is a masterful graphic artist who has been doing this for so long that, like those who continue to craft their skills will eventually surpass the rest. Tatum, has arrived at his own visual language, codes, identities, characters, compositions, and styles that are signature to only him. Many artists can paint the hollow-eyed doll like characters with pentagrams shirts on. But over time, he has constructed his own post punk aesthetic within those categories mentioned above.

Like the rest of these half ass wanna-be poseurs, I say. “Oh, the humanity, I am really fucking impressed with some cleverly quipped played out lowbrow visual bull. Scheeaaa Right!” Pinterest boards are full of this copycat shit. It’s the new generation of Hot Topic / Spencer Gift trivial distractions...“I am punk rock and don’t identify with my parents, they don’t understand, and I do art” blah blah blah visual garbage.”

Let’s move on before I become bored of this article, as I sit, typing in my faded Holly Hobby shirt.

Where was I? Oh yes, Greg Brady spills while surfing that big wave and goes under, all because to the jinxed voodoo tiki doll.

Ok here’s the deal folks… Tatum is clever, undeniably funny and is in most cases unabashedly tied to popular culture, but….

Let’s go back and re-examine all of this that I have criticized above and re-analyze it apart from my jaded, seen-it-before critical eye…because there are ‘nuggets of gold in those hills’, as they say.

“Leap of Faith”, compositionally is made up of two distinct panels. One, minimal in visual cues, holds only the bike ramp, which is centered perfect in the lower middle of the configuration. Above the ramp are neatly painted horizontal lines; graphic design elements referencing the street or road, but are illustrated like some sort of contemporary pinstripe. To the left, on space number two, is the rider, leaping off the ramp…launching in an E.T. and Elliot panache. The visual elements are key here. The background is deliberately painted in a blasé crème color. The boy bike rider is more stencil-like in presentation. Again, a centered element with a defined field.

This painting is all about delivery of purposefully set graphics to evoke emotion.

Tatum has a minimal approach to painting that which is important to spotlight the

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Tatum, “Leap of Faith”, acrylic on canvas, custom wood frame

“...the rider, leaping off the ramp…launching in an E.T. and Elliot panache…The boy bike rider is more stencil-like in presentation. Again, a centered element with a defined field.”

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defining fundamentals; staying true to the painting that activates nostalgia. We see it here with the painterly applications for backgrounds. He really is delivering a storyboard of sorts that is then completed by our own recollections.

“Wu-Tang”, has the same painterly tactic. A washed-out background in complementing mute color palette is enmeshed with a stencil-like depiction of of Spock’s profile. We are familiar enough as a collective culture that we see the pointy ears, the bowl-cut hairline and menacing eyes; we know the sci-fi character from Star Trek. However, graphically, Tatum makes this painting in more of a record album cover manner or a wheat paste poster aesthetic. An explicitly comical jest is evenly matched with appropriate font selections and size. Everything is centered and symmetrical. As a design, its flawless which makes it a visual success. Witty as a one-liner makes it initially undeniably funny.

Cynically though, my fear is, as a low brow aesthetic, Tatum’s paintings will stay ever-evolving only within the generation of appreciators who can identify with them.

Beyond the man cave of the forty to fifty-year old’s who can appreciate this kind of Pop Art, Will it cement itself in the historical aspects of Texas artists or will it be forever be novelty like collected Mad Magazine covers and Star Wars lunch boxes?

“My glock bursts, leave in a hearse, I did worse I come rough, tough like an elephant tusk”

Tatum, “Holding Down the Fort”, acrylic on canvas, custom wood frame

-Ghostface Killah

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Tatum, “Gnome Ranger”, acrylic on canvas, custom wood frame

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Marcy McChesney, “Doctor My Eyes”, collaged paper

BY: GABRIEL DIEGO DELGADO

April 6 – 28, 2017

STUDIO 209 Upstairs Studios/ Blue Star Arts Complex 1420 S. Alamo St San Antonio, TX 78210 Artists: Albert Alvarez, Daryan Arcos, Brandon Bombardier, Louie Chavez, Michelle Love, Marcy McChesney, Moe Profane, Justin Schneider, and Samuel Velasquez Curated by: Lauri Garcia Jones

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Michelle Love, “Resurrection”, acrylic on canvas

URD, a group exhibition of San Antonio artists, curated by Lauri Garcia Jones at Studio 209, upstairs in the Blue Star Complex, is a mixed bag of graphic paintings, drawings, prints and collage. Although there are some heavy hitters in the exhibition, like the new drawings by Albert Alvarez, and portraits by Moe Profane, half the show is mediocre at best. Unfortunately, I feel the lower quality of art in the exhibition brings down the visual value of the show.

The collages by Marcy McChesney are postcard sized scraps of hodge-podge filler; ripped images with linear elements, reminiscent of some high school art project.

They act more as color and compositional theory studies that exist merely as starters for larger paintings. Collages are hard to present as completed fine artworks, and even harder to justify as a curatorial decision next to the hangings of masterful drawer, Albert Alvarez.

Michelle Love, “Resurrection #2”, acrylic on canvas

Let’s start with what I don’t think works in the exhibition and why.

Michelle Love’s acrylic paintings on panel are feeble attempts at some neo-emo exploration. A rebirth or as Love states, “Resurrection”, of a bird from a porcelain cat has several problematic techniques from paint application to graphic rendering.

“Resurrection #2”, a doll head and arm breaking out of, and erupting through a barely roughed-in grass line does not startle as it should in her post-goth contemporary period. The coy-ness of flowers on the head and hand of this subject are unassuming as the rendering of the flowers depreciates the visual effort of the doll. Off to the right side of the doll head sits a Peter Cotton Tail figure with the head of Jesus, complete with halo. Well, Jesus on a rabbit for no reason in the pictorial equation and quasi-narrative Love is attempting to tell is…well…“shaking my head’… moving on.

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“KEEP TACOS WEIRD: TACO BAE”, is an alt-hipster rendition of insurance spokeswoman, Flo...She is the messenger of a “I Love YOU Tacos” eccentrics of San Antonio culture, mixed with a gluttony of Pop Culture edibility.”

What works in the exhibition, you ask?

On the far-left wall from the studio door, sits two shaped wood panels, made from used fence pickets that showcase portraits painted by Moe Profane. The two portraits are the MVP’s of the exhibition.

“KEEP TACOS WEIRD: TACO BAE”, is an althipster rendition of insurance spokeswoman, Flo. Taco Bae is in her blue bowling uniform shirt, which is complete with white matching collar and sleeve cuffs.

With dyed red hair, vintage cat eye glasses and sleeves of tattoos, she presents us a platter of six tacos. Pickles, Oreos, peppermint candies, asparagus, cheese, meats, and miscellaneous other things make up the edible delicacies Profane has decided to use as his key ingredients. I believe the core element in his presentation is the facial expression of Taco Bae; a careless, almost oblivious sideways smirk makes us aware that this ‘order up’ is not her fault.

She is the messenger of a “I Love YOU Tacos” eccentrics of San Antonio culture, mixed with a gluttony of Pop Culture edibility.

The paintings by Samuel Velasquez, “I CAN’T WIN” and “EMBRACE YOUR DARKNESS”, give viability to the exhibition. “I CAN’T WIN”, a graphic depiction of a fox, red-eyed rat, contemplating depressed frog, a slithering snake up a scepter, and a moon with months has an aspect of maturity that is years beyond other paintings in the exhibition. Reflective of the flip-flop of quality displayed- top notch of Velasquez vs.

Love’s amateur attempts at similar aesthetics. “EMBRACE YOUR DARKNESS” illustrates a great pictorial collage effort on behalf of the artist. With atmospheric, worldly, and galactic elements resting on top of the undefined animal we are drawn into the painting to explore the amalgamated assortments. Sickles, trees, ladybugs, and fish spark curiosity more than blasé interminglement.

Louie Chavez, a retro-nostalgic video game/ pop icon appropriator delivers two distinct artworks. One art piece, titled: “COBRA”, displays the artist’s love for 8-bit graphics. Bubble letter graffiti and 80’s stoner art is manipulated in Microsoft Paint and printed. Execution, program used, presentation, and price point all justify the playfulness of a masterful whopping crane kick to the face. COBRA KAI BITCHES. Complementing this digital print is an acrylic painting on canvas by Chavez. “TASMINIAN DOUCHE BAG” is a simplistic illustration of the Looney Tunes character in a purple underpainting set in front of Max Headroom gridded vortex of yellow and aqua. As a submission of Chavez’s artwork, it does not hold the firm physicality of some of his 80’s magazine collages or low-grade graphics. But, “TASMINIAN DOUCHE BAG” seems like it would be more of an exported element or detail from a larger work of art; maybe needing more context, which is why it works next to “COBRA”. A perfect pair of playful pixelations that promote quasi-perverse pleasures.

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Moe Profane, “Keep Tacos Weird : Taco Bae”, acrylic on used fence pickets

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CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine Samuel Velasquez,. “Embrace Your Darkness”, oil on canvas

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Samuel Velasquez,. “I Can’t Win”, oil on canvas

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Louie Chavez, “Cobra”, Microsoft Paint, Digital Print

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Louie Chavez, “Tasmanian Douche Bag”, acrylic on canvas

“A perfect pair of playful pixelations that promote quasi-perverse pleasures.”

I believe the signature pieces in the exhibition belong to exquisite draftsman, Albert Alvarez. “THE WISDOM OF A-TRAIN: DESIRE” is an ink on paper drawing depicting a centralized self-portrait of the artist bombarded with and surrounded by elements of what Alvarez says are “bad things”. Affected by the OJ Simpson miniseries and the tabloid chronicles of Lorena Bobbitt, the illustrations whirling around Alvarez are a mixture of text based headlines, analytical paragraphs, quotes and other writing that give off a sense of lustfulness mixed with horridness. Presented in a kind of 1980’s ‘Rigley’s Believe It or Not’ aesthetic, the drawing is so jam packed with stuff, it seems to take over an hour to read and process this compulsive composition.

“I SAW IT ALL” and “TATTERED RAGS” are two more acrylic paintings by Alvarez in the exhibition that

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Albert Alvarez, “I Saw It All”, acrylic on panel Albert Alvarez, “Tattered Rags”, acrylic on panel

capture his signature style. “I SAW IT ALL” is a text / illustrative painting surrounded by a frame of 1980’s villains, POP icons, musicians, and other 30 year ago phenomena. From Cabbage Patch Dolls to Mortal Kombat video games to plays on apocalyptic demise of our culture, Alvarez showcases what he sees as pitfalls to contemporary evolution. The twenty small portraits that make up the outer frame of the composition include: Chucky, Terminator, Mr. T, Pinhead, Tupac, Jason, Madonna, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael, Eazy E, Freddie Krueger, Tales from the Crypt, and others. A morbid sense of expiry foretells the inevitable. At least by Alvarez’s outlook.

“TATTERED RAGS” is set up very similar to “I SAW IT ALL” with the graphic outer frame of various pictures and portraits that surround the main composition of a four square of depressive fractions. Part pop culture, part texted based derogatory labels, the inside pictorial again shows a pessimistic perdition prediction of sorts. The frame dominates the storyboard as it illustrates disease, death, cycles of life, suicide, depression, graveyards, politicians, and religion.

I feel Alvarez carries the weight of the exhibition with his trinity of catastrophic contemplations of current cultures. Yes, the bad can be very bad…Yes, the news is depressing…Yes, reality is harsh. Alvarez wallows deep in the dark side, and gives us more of himself in these artworks. The grim realities are hard to swallow, but with artists like Alvarez willing to reconnoiter such veracities, we are better off.

For more information on SURD, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/433265927018285/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A% 2222%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&pnref=story

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Albert Alvarez, “ The Wisdom of A-Train: Desire”, ink on paper

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Image Courtesy of James Saldivar and Maria D. Garza

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James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

J. RASKA SKIPPED

BY: GABRIEL DIEGO DELGADO

Lone Star Studios Opened: April 8, 2017 April 8, 2017—April 28, 2017

By Appointment Only after April 8, 2017

—“If I wasn’t an abstract painter… I don’t know what else I would be…?” - J. Raska 40 /

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James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

“Skipped”, a solo exhibition of new ‘paintings’ by James Raska at Lone Star Studios for the month of April 2017, illustrates why Raska is a force to be reckoned with. A fullblown installation of minimal paintings on found pieces of wood scattered up and down the walls of the exhibition space make me feel like I am in some sort of Art Tetris game where the winner stacks everything up in a weird OCD arrangement.

There are black circles, red circles, yellow circles, blue and black circles with red lines, oddly shaped yellow hexagon, small rectangles in non-assuming flag orientations; all mixed in with these purposefully calm and voided-out black shapes… Here is where the 80’s notion of “The Nothing” comes to mind. When I first saw the black ‘spots’ on the walls, I thought holes or voids, but upon further understanding, it seems that these are Raska’s ‘dark matter’ that coexists with the reality of our observable world. A visual play with color and design.

In the current activities of San Antonio, some of Raska’s arrangements start to resemble Fiesta medals, like the purple badge and blue and red pendant on the center wall. While some parts of the ‘painting’ installations are only inches big, they work well to fill the ‘gaps’ in-between the larger rectangles and circles.

I think sometimes Raska likes to stand on the sidelines, set traps for us, then wait to see just to see how we step within his masterly crafted art ruse. When questioned, he just scoffs and smiles.

When looking at traditional abstract artwork, if the painting is successful, my eye will flow through the composition. Here, Raska allows our eye to flow through the physical space. The walls of the gallery are the canvas and the full installation is in essence, one large fragmented and “modular” painting.

But, Raska is smarter than that. Our eyes’ gaze is taken up by the yellow-orange-ish shapes on the left wall, then forced down by the small blue rectangle below. But if you look closely. Reevaluate the placement decisions by the artist. The overlooked details. They are there! Don’t miss them! For instance, the yellow shape on the top right corner of the left wall is about one inch over the top of the wall. The artist purposefully activates the negative space above the wall, just a bit, to have us acknowledge it.

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James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

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With no labels, no titles, no prices, we are forced to reassess what we are experiencing.

In some Dadaist fashion, Raska is laughing at me as I try to decipher his audience expectations, I am sure.

“I want them [the audience] to like it,” he says.

But yet, here I am, captivated by the arrangement of the negative ‘paintings’. They are the one with the movement, the rhythm. They are the constant equation in the big picture, the supporting actor role who gets the Oscar, not the starring role. These black shapes are all spaced within the same middle band along the three walls. The colored wood pieces are the distractions. The black band of shapes make up some sort of coded pattern, like a John Cage-like anti jazz tempo.

“It’s ridiculous and obnoxious,” Raska affirms.

I think with the current art market trends and the artists wanting to engulf the viewer in the installations; think Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirror rooms – Raska immerses the audience. Three sides of the gallery space boxes us in; horse-blinded into looking only at quasi-geometric minimally painted shapes.

Purpose? Depends.

Are we coy enough to read the work at face value?

I am not…there must be more. If there wasn’t [more] Raska’s art would be a big waste of time.

It does touch on four distinct genres of contemporary art: Installation, Conceptual, Minimal and Dada. He knows what he is doing. But, is he the only one?

But, yet he distances me again with the, “There is no underlying conceptual thing” line as I press further.

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James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

“It’s a means to make art. Its more design oriented and I am trying to make modern/ modular pieces,” he explains.

“...these are Raska’s ‘dark matter’ that coexists with the reality of our observable world.

A visual play with color and design.”

The show title, “Skipped” is a reference to a European slang word meaning dumpsters, or ‘skips”. Raska went ‘skipping’ and found all these wood pieces in the trash while dumpster diving in San Antonio.

On opening night, Raska sold the ‘paintings’ with pricing ranging from $1.00 - $75.00.

“You don’t fool me Raska. I have seen your trickery.”

An abstract painter with a full understanding of conceptual theory, intuitive confidence and focused execution, “Skipped” is there for us experience in our own way.

“Either you get it or you don’t,” he says.

This alone is proof there is an unacknowledged conceptual implication and swirls within the ‘nothing’.

James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

James Raska, Image Courtesy of the Author

Keep smiling Raska, keep smiling, someone will fall for it.

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Jon Read, Image Courtesy of the Artist, “The Green Lady”, acrylic on plywood

JON READ What Are Your Super Powers And How Did You Get Them?

Bill's Junk 1125 E 11th St, Houston, Texas 77009 (713) 863-7112

By: Tex Kerschen Reprinted from Houston Press Original Publishing Date: April 21, 2017, Reprinting Courtesy of Houston Press, Tex Kerschen, and Jon Read http://www.houstonpress.com/event/what-are-your-super-powers-and-how-did-you-get-them-9367130

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ill's Junk presents, "What Are Your Super Powers And How Did You Get Them?," a survey of new and recent works by local artist Jon Read. Read (who also performs an especially curmudgeonly kind of scuzzrock as the Wiggins) has long applied his preferred painterly technique---a delightfully garish kind of fauvist-primitivism---to a spiraling series of fantasy, religious, sci fi, and super hero narratives that owe as much to medieval history paintings as they do to comic books and outsider artists like Henry Darger.

Jon Read, Image Courtesy of the Artist, “Installation Shot�

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Jon Read, Image Courtesy of the Artist, “Uber Battle”, acrylic on plywood

For more information on Jon Read’s art, visit: http://jonreadsart.squarespace.com/

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Jon Read, Image Courtesy of the Artist, “Detail of Origin of Dr. Rah”, acrylic on plywood

Though he works in painted cutouts, painted boards, works on paper, and prints, his stoned tableaus are always bright and busy, crowded with strange characters, teeming with action, lousy with minutiae, and tight-packed with allusions to dystopian movies and the dense, strange storehouse of historical and literary oddities.

Jon Read, Image Courtesy of the Artist, “Detail of Origin of Dr. Rah”, acrylic on plywood

“...a delightfully garish kind of fauvist-primitivism ---to a spiraling series of fantasy, religious, sci fi, and super hero narratives …”

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KATY ANDERSON + PATRICK MEDRANO SPECIAL TO CONTEMPORARY TEXAS MAGAZINE

ANDERSON + MEDRANO / May 4 – June 14, 2017 / Reception May 4 Apama Mackey Gallery – 20 Year Anniversary Exhibition Series

OPENING - Thursday, May 4 / 6 - 8:00 pm Apama Mackey Gallery is located at 628 E 11th St, Houston, Texas 77008 www.apamamackeygallery.com / amg@apamamackeygallery.com

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ANDERSON + MEDRANO: Marking our 15th anniversary, this show has brought us back to our creative roots. The colors and materials and especially the back lit images seen through custom built viewfinders, it all reminds us of the first collaborative works we ever made. Without the constraint of an actual title for the show, we have had the freedom to create without the daunting task of making it all connect to a theme or singular narrative, which is how we used to do it. Back then our collaborative process was much looser. We made art as a reflex, always without giving it much thought, only making whatever it was we wanted to see on our own walls and not what we thought would connect with a viewer. Over the years the process has changed but our rolls as collaborative partners remains the same, Katy Anderson, the photographer and Patrick Medrano, the sculptor / builder / painter.

“The creation of this show felt urgent, like we had been suddenly primed by all the recent world These are uncertain times and for artists this is both an extremely difficult time to be making art but also an extremely important time to be making art. The creation of events and tragedies this show felt urgent, like we had been suddenly primed by all the recent world events and tragedies and it was time and it was time for us for us to go to work, do our job, to reflect, to inspire, to bring hope, to shine our light, to say what we had to say to go to work…” about it. That is what this show represents to us, the cleansing of spirit, the search for higher knowledge and the connection we all have to one another and this earth.

The Native Americans believed the occurrence of a white animal was a huge sign of prophecy– a sign from the great spirit that a major shift in their world was to come.

Apama Mackey Gallery

For more information, please contact Apama Mackey at 713-302-5869 or at amg@apamamackeygallery.com.

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Gioachino Rossini's

The Barber of Seville May 6, 2017 - 7:30pm May 7, 2017 - 2:30pm H-E-B Performance Hall Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Special to Contemporary Texas Magazine

This production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville will feature Luis Ledesma (pictured) as Figaro, Sarah Coburn as Rosina, and Andrew Owens as Count Almaviva. An impressive trio with a number of credits, these artists have performed in a number of North American and international venues, including the Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Teatro all Scala Milano, Wexford Festival, L'OpĂŠra de Montreal, and Wiener Staatsoper.

Director E. Loren Meeker has received critical acclaim for her stagings of Carmen at Washington National Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor at New Orleans Opera, and Manon at Dallas Opera. We are thrilled to have her join OPERA San Antonio as our stage director for The Barber of Seville. Additionally, this production was designed by acclaimed set designer John Conklin, who has done extensive work for the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, and Bastille Opera in Paris.

May 6 at 7:30 PM and May 7 at 2:30 PM are your only opportunities to see The Barber of Seville in the H-EB Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts! Additionally, we invite you to arrive to the performances early so you can attend the pre-performance lectures, given by Dr. Kevin Salfen, Associate Professor of Music History at the University of the Incarnate Word. The lectures will take place at 6:30 PM and 1:30 PM on May 6 and 7, respectively.

Director: E. Loren Meeker │ Conductor: Vlad Iftinca

Tobin Center Box Office (210) 223-8624

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Richard Thompson, “Beautiful Past, Beautiful Future, 9/10 , Lithograph

UTSA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESENTS THE ROADRUNNER WEEKEND TO BENEFIT SCHOLARSHIPS

Special to Contemporary Texas Magazine

The UTSA Alumni Association is excited to present its Inaugural Roadrunner Weekend featuring a Golf Scramble on Friday, June 16th and a Gala & After Party on Saturday, June 17th at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort and Spa in San Antonio, Texas.

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CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine

The Association is celebrating 40 years of supporting UTSA by connecting alumni to support scholarship funds. “We have been fortunate to award $150,000 in scholarships each year thanks to the generosity of UTSA alumni.” said Jana Kennelly, Executive Director of the Alumni Association.

The weekend starts off with the Golf Scramble on Friday, June 16th. Lunch will be served at noon with tee-off at 1:30 PM. The event will end with award presentations.

Saturday will continue the Roadrunner Weekend with our Gala & After Party featuring the Spazmatics as the After Party band. “If you are familiar with the local band scene in San Antonio, then you know the Spazmatics will get everyone on the dance floor with the best of 80s music.” said Nancy Ozuna, Gala Chair and Alumni Board Member.

A special edition to Gala this year will be an expanded Art Auction of South Texas artists.

“UTSA believes in supporting the area artists and has an extensive campus art collection,” said Arturo Almeida, Art Curator for UTSA. “Being able to promote local and regional artists while supporting the Alumni Scholarship Fund, is what makes this Gala so special.”

“...UTSA believes in supporting the area artists and has an extensive campus art collection,” said Arturo Almeida, Art Curator for UTSA.”

Another Gala highlight will be honoring our Alumni of the Year, Janice Meyr and the Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Patricia Graham. “We could not have picked two better people who have been long time champions for the Alumni Association.” said Mike Klein, Alumni Board President.

If you would like to purchase a Roadrunner Weekend experience, please go to alumni.utsa.edu/ gala. There are limited rooms available at special pricing. More information can be found on the alumni website.

Judith Baca, “Japanese 442”, 7/10, Lithograph

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